The best robot vacuums and mops we've tested in 2025

iRobot is the O.G. of floor vacuum robots, as the company released its first model back in 2002. 

Along with setting the benchmark for other companies, they haven’t rested on its laurels either, given the outstanding performance and feature set in its Roomba Combo j9+ — with a killer feature tied to the mopping function.

As with several others in this round-up, this disc-shaped robot vacuum includes a self-emptying station you keep plugged into the wall. It seamlessly cleans carpet and hard floors in the same cleaning job, vacuuming up pet hair and dust, cleverly navigating around objects, and to avoid wet carpets it utilizes an auto-retracting mop pad, lifting itself to the top of the robot.

My favourite feature, however, is SmartScrub, which performs a back-and-forth scrubbing motion, with more pressure, when it detects the spot needs more attention. It’s a little noisier and tougher on the battery but it is something not found in the other models we tested. When it’s done mopping, it takes itself to its Clean Base to charge, emptying debris into its dustbin that only needs to be emptied after 60 days and replenishes the robot with liquid for up to 30 days. You’ll need to remove and clean and/or replace mop pads underneath the unit.

The Roomba Combo j9+ prioritizes your dirtiest rooms first based on insights from cleaning history through its “Dirt Detective” feature, plus, like the others, the app also shows your home mapped out, so you can instruct your Roomba to clean a specific area if needed. 

Out of the half-dozen vacuums in this round-up, the roborock Q5 Pro proved to be easiest out of all to get going, the quietest model out of the bunch, and includes a mopping feature — all for under $500. But note, this unit does not include a self-emptying station like most of the other robovacs we tested, but it had one of the largest integrated dust bins (ideal for those with long-haired pets). 

After charging up the robovac and scanning the QR code to connect it to the app, this 6.6-pound sucker immediately mapped the floor space to draw its 3D map (which you can then customize with furniture, floor material, and zones). The roborock leverages LiDAR to “see” the rooms, identify the most efficient route, and if you have hardwood floors, it will clean along its seams to get right in the cracks.

While you don’t need to be home for robovacs to do their thing, this robovac is quiet and fast, yet did a great job picking up dust bunnies, crumbs, pet hair, and more. Oddly, it missed some little things, like the skin of an onion and popcorn kernel on the floor of a kitchen pantry, but it did a commendable job overall.

It didn’t quite live up to its “up to 4-hour battery” claim, but would drive itself back to the base to charge up and continued the job. On more than one occasion it just stopped cleaning and didn’t return for some reason, and so I had to initiate it again in the app. Speaking of charging up, bonus points for being able to select when the Q5 Pro charges up if you pay more for electricity at certain times of the day.

When iRobot — the folks behind the Roomba-brand of robovacs — first introduced a self-emptying station a few years back, there was quite a premium slapped on for this luxury. (Essentially, a second vacuum is inside the vertical base to store the dirt held temporarily by the robot vac).

Competition has grown and prices have dropped over the years, which brings us to a sub-$400 eufy Robot Vacuum L60 with Self Empty Station (SES), which can hold as much as 60 days' worth of dirt before you need to empty the reusable 2.5-litre bag into the trash.

Despite a couple of minor setup issues, the eufy L60 SES performed excellently, thanks to its 5,000 Pa of suction (but shy of roborock’s 5,500 Pa) and eufy’s “iPath Laser Navigation” that, like many other robovacs tested, uses LiDAR technology to scan rooms and create accurate maps for a more efficient clean. The easy-to-use eufy app stores the map of your floors (and you can have different maps if you like in a multistory home) and can label the rooms (e.g. “kitchen” or “living room”) and set up no-enter zones for rooms you don’t want the L60 to roam into.

As promised, the eufy did a good job at cutting the hair it sucked up — mostly from Bernese Mountain Dog we sit for, named Mowgli – instead of wrapping it around the rollers that force you to handle. 

Aside from no mopping capabilities, the only issue with this model was the setup: it was the only one without a “Quick Start” guide in the box (instead, it had a “Safety Information” booklet), and the setup instructions said to press and hold the “Begin cleaning button” on the robovac for 3 seconds — but there was nothing that said “Begin cleaning” on the vacuum. There was only a universal “Power” icon and “Home” icon; I pressed and held the Home button and it said “Child Lock on” (sigh) and so I did it again to unlock it, and so it was the “Power” button that was the “Begin cleaning” button after all.

While busy homeowners may like the idea of a self-emptying dock, some may not like the look of these in their home (and you need a bit of space around it, so you can’t shove it into the corner).

If you can relate, the TP-Link Tapo RV30 Max Plus is a wet n’ dry robot vacuum that ships with a smaller dock than most others, measuring only 13 inches tall, yet houses a large 3-litre dust bag that can go two months or so without emptying (depending on how dusty your home is and/or if you have hairy pets).

Like other robovacs, the Tap RV30 Max Plus first navigates around your home to draw an overhead map you can review in the Tapo app. A tad louder than some of the other vacuums, but this ‘bot did a great job sucking up everything in its path — kitchen crumbs, pet hair, dust and other assorted debris — leveraging its LiDAR for efficient routes.

Support for Alexa and Google smart speakers and displays means you can use your voice to say something like “Alexa, ask Tapo Vacuum to start cleaning” or “OK, Google, ask Tapo Vacuum to go home.”

Mopping was good but not exceptional. It took care of a juice stain on the tile under the kitchen table but not some grime by the front door, perhaps brought in on the bottom of shoes. But mopping is a nice feature to have in a sub-$600 vacuum model.

One of the youngest companies in this roundup, Dreame opened its doors in 2017 and quickly made a name for itself for inexpensive autonomous helpers around the home, like robotic vacuum cleaners and lawn-cutting robots.

Its Dream D10 Plus (2nd Gen) robot benefits from a more powerful section (4,000 pa) and new mopping modes, smarter obstacle avoidance, and a slightly longer (nearly 3-hour) battery performance.

This robotic vacuum and mop hybrid includes a self-emptying docking station (for dust, not water) and similar to the other models, it doesn’t just randomly clean room by room but instead uses LiDAR navigation to map it and find optimized routes to do more in less time. It’s a little louder than some of the other robotic vacuums tested here but boasts 4,000 pa of suction and picked up a lot of debris. Some of the dirt was left in the robot after it docked, and so it sometimes required a little manual emptying; it can hold up to 45 days’ worth of dust and hair, says the company, which is a little less than competitors at about two months.

Mopping proved better than the TP-Link model but inferior to the (pricier) Shark and iRobot models. 

The app and smart speaker support fared well — I tried Alexa on an Amazon Echo Show smart display, but it also works with Google Assistant.

Overall, this Dreame is a great pick — especially for the price.

Here’s my dilemma: I love dogs, but I’m allergic to them — yes, even most “hypoallergenic” breeds. 

As a glutton for punishment, I rarely say "no" when asked by friends to dog-sit for a weekend or more, and so these robotic vacuums (oh, and air purifiers) are two great tools in my arsenal (along with antihistamines).  

And so I was eager to try the Shark PowerDetect 2-in-1 self-emptying robot vacuum and mop to see if it could do the job with its “NeverTouch” technology that empties the dust bin into its base for you (up to 60 days’ worth), and also refills its own water tank (for up to 30 days), as well as dries the mopping pad after every clean.

Along with “NeverTouch” is the Shark’s “NeverStuck,” which did a great job on a shag rug we have in our family room (where some other vacs had issues) as it elevates its body as much as an inch when it detects rugs and small obstacles, while also raising its mopping pad when over carpets to ensure it doesn’t accidentally try to mop the carpet. Similar to the iRobot J9+ it can detect stains and do multiple passes over them (though the iRobot model actually applies more pressure and does a better job overall).

Like other robots in this round-up, sometimes I had to manually clean out the ‘bot because not all of it was sucked into the base station — but it worked quite well more often than not.